Server

Abstract

A server which manages an agreement of a service offered between domains through a network, for automatically renewing services offered by or demanded by other domains depending on the change of an agreement with the other domains or network state variations. When an agreement with a server is changed, or a variation of network state occurs in other servers, an agreement associated with the other servers is correspondingly changed, and preferably the change is performed only in excess of a fixed threshold value.

What we claim is:  
     
         1 . A server which manages an agreement for a service offered between domains through a network, comprising: 
 a receiving unit for receiving a change notification of an agreement from an agreement offering side,    a domain information managing unit,    an agreement renewal unit for selecting and renewing the agreement with the agreement offering side from the domain information managing unit by the change notification, and selecting an agreement with an agreement demanding side associated with the change notification to prepare a corresponding change notification of the latter agreement, and    a transmitting unit for transmitting the corresponding change notification from the agreement renewal unit to the agreement demanding side.    
     
     
         2 . A server which manages an agreement for a service offered between domains through a network, comprising: 
 a receiving unit for receiving a change demand of an agreement from an agreement demanding side,    a domain information managing unit,    an agreement renewal unit for selecting and renewing the agreement with the agreement demanding side from the domain information managing unit by the change demand, and selecting an agreement with an agreement offering side associated with the change demand to prepare a corresponding change demand of the latter agreement, and    a transmitting unit for transmitting the corresponding change demand from the agreement renewal unit to the agreement demanding side.    
     
     
         3 . A server as claimed in    claim 2    wherein the agreement renewal unit prepares a change notification of the agreement corresponding to the change demand to be transmitted to the agreement demanding side from the transmitting unit.  
     
     
         4 . A server which manages an agreement for a service offered between domains through a network, comprising: 
 a network information collecting unit,    a domain information managing unit,    an agreement renewal unit for making the network information collecting unit collect information regarding a network variation, for selecting an agreement from the domain information managing unit when the information indicates the agreement with an agreement demanding side to be changed, for renewing the selected agreement to correspond to the network variation, and for preparing a change demand for an agreement with an associated agreement offering side, and    a transmitting unit for transmitting the change demand from the agreement renewal unit to the agreement offering side.    
     
     
         5 . A server which manages an agreement for a service offered between domains through a network, comprising: 
 a network information collecting unit,    a domain information managing unit,    an agreement renewal unit for making the network information collection unit collect information regarding a network variation, for selecting an agreement from the domain information managing unit when the information indicates the agreement with an agreement offering side to be changed, for renewing the selected agreement to correspond to the network variation, and for preparing a change notification for an agreement with an associated agreement demanding side, and    a transmitting unit for transmitting the change notification from the agreement renewal unit to the agreement demanding side.    
     
     
         6 . A server which manages an agreement for a service offered between domains through a network, comprising: 
 a receiving unit for receiving an agreement offer from an agreement offering side,    a domain information managing unit,    an inter-domain cooperating unit,    an agreement renewal unit for notifying the inter-domain cooperating unit of the agreement offer, and    a transmitting unit;    the inter-domain cooperating unit acquiring an agreement associated with the agreement offer from the domain information managing unit, preparing a new agreement offer for an agreement demanding side, based on the agreement, to be notified to the agreement renewal unit,    the agreement renewal unit selecting and renewing an agreement associated with the new agreement offer from the domain information managing unit, and transmitting the new agreement offer to the agreement demanding side from the transmitting unit.    
     
     
         7 . A server as claimed in    claim 6    wherein when receiving an agreement decision demand followed by the agreement offer through the receiving unit from the agreement demanding side, the agreement renewal unit notifies the inter-domain cooperating unit of the agreement decision demand, the inter-domain cooperating unit acquires an agreement associated with the agreement decision demand from the domain information managing unit and prepares a new agreement decision demand for the agreement offering side, based on the agreement, to be notified to the agreement renewal unit, and the agreement renewal unit selects and renews an agreement associated with the new agreement decision demand from the domain information managing unit and transmits the new agreement decision demand to the agreement offering side from the transmitting unit.  
     
     
         8 . A server as claimed in    claim 7    wherein when receiving an agreement decision response followed by the agreement decision demand though the receiving unit from the agreement offering side, the agreement renewal unit notifies the inter-domain cooperating unit of the agreement decision response, the inter-domain cooperating unit acquires an agreement associated with the agreement decision response from the domain information managing unit and prepares a new agreement decision response for the agreement demanding side, based on the agreement, to be notified to the agreement renewal unit, which acquires and renews an agreement associated with the new agreement decision response from the domain information managing unit, selects and renews information associated with the agreement decision response, and transmits the new agreement decision response to the agreement demanding side from the transmitting unit.  
     
     
         9 . A server as claimed in    claim 8    wherein when receiving an agreement demand from the agreement demanding side though the receiving unit, the agreement renewal unit notifies the inter-domain cooperating unit of the agreement demand, the inter-domain cooperating unit acquires an agreement associated with the agreement demand from the domain information managing unit and prepares a new agreement demand for the agreement offering side, based on the agreement, to be notified to the agreement renewal unit, which acquires and renews an agreement associated with the new agreement demand from the domain information managing unit and transmits the new agreement demand to the agreement offering side from the transmitting unit, whereby the agreement offer is transmitted from the agreement offering side.  
     
     
         10 . A server which manages an agreement for a service offered between domains through a network, comprising: 
 a receiving unit for receiving an agreement change notification from outside,    a domain information managing unit,    a threshold decision unit having a threshold value,    an agreement renewal unit for notifying the threshold decision unit of the agreement change notification, and    a transmitting unit,    the threshold decision unit acquiring information regarding the agreement change notification from the domain information managing unit, and deciding whether or not an agreement renewal regarding the agreement change notification should be made, based on the threshold value, to be notified to the agreement renewal unit, whereby the agreement renewal unit, upon agreement renewal, renews an agreement associated with the domain information managing unit and transmits an agreement offer to an agreement demanding side from the transmitting unit.